Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Quemoy Day 4: More Military Secrets and a City Too Far/金門四日目：キモイから見るアモイ

Continuing from my previous post, because we were unable to enter Mashan the previous day, we decided to go there again this morning. The weather was also being very agreeable, and we had the clearest weather we had the entire time we were in Quemoy.

台湾だけど、アメリカの中部の平原に似ている。
I was struck when cycling through the sorghum fields of the more rural, east-side of the island that it really looks a lot like some rural area in middle America. It's hard to believe I'm in East Asia when I look at these photos.
不像台灣、像美國中部的鄉下。

牛とかも居る。
ㄇㄡㄇㄡ！

到着！馬山！今日は入れる。
我們到了！今天進去了。

Inside Mashan.

「母国を返せ」みたいな感じの標語。（下）
The big slogan below says something like "return our rivers and mountains" which I assume alludes to "the motherland" (China).

有差不多１００公尺的坑道、、、

Here we enter a tunnel that goes for about 100 meters...

このトンネルに入って、ずっと歩くと、、、

この展望台みたいな場所に出て来る。
...and we come out on the other end in an observation room where we can see PRC soil not even 2 kilometers away from our current position!

然後、在坑道終點看得到中國大陸。

ここから密かに向こうの中国が観察出来る。

ホホホ！中国を覗いている。向こうは全然俺が見えないだろう、、、
Actual, literal Red China just across the sea from us. (Though admittedly, I'm pretty sure no one actually lives on that island. It's probably just a military base.)
那裡就是大陸！

There are also some pretty flowers to look at in case you want to forget all about civil wars and other such unpleasantries.

The weather was so outstanding that we made the crazy decision to go to Quemoy Minor after this. ("Quemoy Minor" is my own creation. It's probably not the "official" English name for it, but it's pretty rad, huh?) Why was this decision crazy? Quemoy Minor is a second island next to Quemoy that is accessible by ferry. The ferry terminal though is on the west side of the island, right near where we stayed for two days. We were currently on the east side of the island, so it was as inconvenient as it could possibly get. Still, we anticipated beautiful, clear skies, perfect for viewing the large city of Amoy just across the sea from Quemoy Minor.
因為今天天氣非常好、所以我們就決定了去小金門。為了去小金門、要先去西部的水頭港、所以對在東部的我們來說、不方便。但是我們期待看到大陸看得很清楚。

水頭の港に着いて、船に乗った。
And here's the ferry! That was fast! (It actually wasn't since we rode our bikes to Shami, got on a bus to Jincheng, and then rented different bikes to got to the terminal.)

去小金門的船。只花差不多１５分鐘、就到了小金門。

小金門と金門は船で１５分間ぐらいしか離れていないので、小金門の島民は普通に買い物とかを金門で済ます事が出来る。

You can see Quemoy Minor below. It's only about 15 minutes by ferry.

向こうが小金門だ。
對面的島就是小金門。

あっという間に小金門の港に到着した。（下）

なぜか鶏の銅像が堂々と建っていた。

ああ、なるほど。風鶏ね。って何なんだ！？
We arrived at Quemoy Minor and got to see the big cock tower near the port. Heh.
好像這個雞算是小金門的象徵。

"Lieyu Township, Home of the Wind Chicken". No, I'm not making that up. I just translate.

中華民国（台湾）バンザイ！
And here we have a "Republic of China, Banzai!" sign.
在鐵馬路旁邊有很多牛。

質問です。牛を飼っていると想像して下さい。その牛をどこかに放置したいです。どこが一番理想的な場所なのですか？
１）自分の農場
２）観光客が使うサイクリングパースの横
３）答えは２番だよ。
めんどうくさい！邪魔！なんでそんなところに牛を放置するのか？
Apparently cow farmers on the island like to leave their cows right next to the cycling path for some reason.

本物の地雷じゃなくて、地雷の事を説明している展示物だ。
Along the path was a display about landmines. It was kind of creepy since there are actual fenced-off areas with landmines on Quemoy.
這裡不是真的地雷。就是展示。

サイクリングパースから見えためっちゃ綺麗なビーチだ。

這個海邊非常漂亮吧？

我們想去的地方就是這裡。也是博物館、可是我們來是為了想看看瞭望台。這裡是小金門的西部、看得到廈門！
And here is our goal! This is a military museum on the west side of the island. We didn't care about the museum at all though. The point was to go to the lookout room where you can see Amoy.

The map above is of the area. Quemoy is the big, white island. Quemoy Minor is the small, white island. And Amoy is the big, yellow island on the left side. Not only is it pretty close to Quemoy Minor, but keep in mind Amoy is a city of not insignificant size. It's pretty wild to see such a major "enemy" city so close. (I put "enemy" in quotes, but maybe I shouldn't. The Chinese Civil War didn't really end until the 70's, and quite frankly, even now the PRC and the ROC [Taiwan] engage in espionage against each other. And while Taiwan has given up on "retaking the motherland", the PRC has most certainly not given up on taking over Taiwan at some point in the future, by force if necessary.)

博物館の前に有る展示物だ。さっさとここ通って、展望台に行った。
We skipped right past the exhibits to the lookout point.

左側（上の写真）に見える島はまだ中華民国の領土だ。

The small island above is still ROC territory. However the photo below shows what we came for. Amoy! It's not as clear we would have liked, but you can see it.

望遠鏡を使ってこの基地の有る台湾の島の写真を撮ろうとした。
A small military base island off the coast.
這一個島是中華民國的。好像有基地。

見ている間に、急に犬が現れて、目の前でうんこした。最高のタイミング。座布団一枚。
Sometimes the gods of humor answer our prayers and deliver to us a truly stupendous experience. As we were looking out at the beautiful seascape in front of us, a dog came along and took a big crap right outside the window.
我們看著看著、忽然狗來、在前面就大便了。

鳥達も目の前に降りて来た。
Good dog.

望遠鏡の隣りにちょっと誰かの兵士の洗濯物が見えた。
After finishing his dirty business, the dog ran off to the side here where I noticed I could see some soldier's laundry hanging up. I guess the museum has a still active base next to it.
看得到嗎？也有兵人的洗衣。

ああ、本当に綺麗だ！

ここからの帰りのいい写真も有るけど、今回載せようと思う。それじゃ！

That's it for now, but I've got some more beautiful sea photos from this day to show next time.